Japanese cinema’s earliest attempt to depict the full impact of the 1945 atom-bomb attack is one of the best anti-Nuke movies ever… yet it somehow stayed under the radar of American awareness for decades. The bombing is seen from only eight years’ distance, when the nation was seemingly resisting coming to terms with its social and political implications; Hideo Sekigawa’s account includes some subtle commentary on the indifferent political response to the plight of the victims… even in 1953. Arrow’s extras include a Jasper Sharp video essay that fills in a lot of blank cinema history between Enola Gay and Godzilla. The impressive music score will seem familiar; it’s by Akira Ifukube.
Hiroshima
Blu-ray
Arrow Academy
1953 / B&w / 1:37 flat / 104 85 min. / Street Date July 14, 2020 / 24.99
Starring: Eiji Okada, Yumeji Tsukioka, Yoshi Katô, Masayuki Tsukida, Takashi Kanda, Isuzu Yamada.
Cinematography: Shunichirô Nakao, Susumu Urashima
Film Editor: Akikazu Kôno
Original Music:...
Hiroshima
Blu-ray
Arrow Academy
1953 / B&w / 1:37 flat / 104 85 min. / Street Date July 14, 2020 / 24.99
Starring: Eiji Okada, Yumeji Tsukioka, Yoshi Katô, Masayuki Tsukida, Takashi Kanda, Isuzu Yamada.
Cinematography: Shunichirô Nakao, Susumu Urashima
Film Editor: Akikazu Kôno
Original Music:...
- 8/22/2020
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
Hideo Sekigawa’s Hiroshima (1953) is currently available on Blu-ray From Arrow Academy.
Hiroshima (1953) is a powerful evocation of the devastation wrought by the world s first deployment of the atomic bomb and its aftermath, based on the written eye-witness accounts of its child survivors compiled by Dr. Arata Osada for the 1951 book Children Of The A Bomb: Testament Of The Boys And Girls Of Hiroshima.
Adapted for the screen by independent director Hideo Sekigawa and screenwriter Yasutaro Yagi, Hiroshima combines a harrowing documentary realism with moving human drama, in a tale of the suffering, endurance and survival of a group of teachers, their students and their families. It boasts a rousing score composed by Akira Ifukube (Godzilla) and an all-star cast including Yumeji Tsukioka, Isuzu Yamada and Eiji Okada, appearing alongside an estimated 90,000 residents from the city as extras, including many survivors from that fateful day on 6th August 1945.
Hiroshima...
Hiroshima (1953) is a powerful evocation of the devastation wrought by the world s first deployment of the atomic bomb and its aftermath, based on the written eye-witness accounts of its child survivors compiled by Dr. Arata Osada for the 1951 book Children Of The A Bomb: Testament Of The Boys And Girls Of Hiroshima.
Adapted for the screen by independent director Hideo Sekigawa and screenwriter Yasutaro Yagi, Hiroshima combines a harrowing documentary realism with moving human drama, in a tale of the suffering, endurance and survival of a group of teachers, their students and their families. It boasts a rousing score composed by Akira Ifukube (Godzilla) and an all-star cast including Yumeji Tsukioka, Isuzu Yamada and Eiji Okada, appearing alongside an estimated 90,000 residents from the city as extras, including many survivors from that fateful day on 6th August 1945.
Hiroshima...
- 7/26/2020
- by Tom Stockman
- WeAreMovieGeeks.com
In the history of civilization, no one has ever been consoled by the thought “Other people have had it worse than you.”
In 2020, the pandemic has been devastating, with deaths, illness, unemployment and economic turmoil. But as we observe the 75th anniversaries of V-e and V-j Day, it’s worth remembering that people during World War II experienced all these things and more — including widespread destruction of buildings, homes and even towns.
Variety in 1942 carried a story about Nazis destroying the Czech town of Lidice. During the war years, Variety reported on wholesale devastation to numerous places including the Republic of Formosa (Taiwan today) and Aachen (aka Aix la Chapelle) to name a few. And while we now complain that we can’t go to movie theaters, at least these venues still exist; on April 4, 1945, Variety said that the 400 pre-war cinemas in Berlin had been reduced to 31, with the rest bombed out.
In 2020, the pandemic has been devastating, with deaths, illness, unemployment and economic turmoil. But as we observe the 75th anniversaries of V-e and V-j Day, it’s worth remembering that people during World War II experienced all these things and more — including widespread destruction of buildings, homes and even towns.
Variety in 1942 carried a story about Nazis destroying the Czech town of Lidice. During the war years, Variety reported on wholesale devastation to numerous places including the Republic of Formosa (Taiwan today) and Aachen (aka Aix la Chapelle) to name a few. And while we now complain that we can’t go to movie theaters, at least these venues still exist; on April 4, 1945, Variety said that the 400 pre-war cinemas in Berlin had been reduced to 31, with the rest bombed out.
- 5/15/2020
- by Tim Gray
- Variety Film + TV
As part of their release slates for the months June and July 2020 Arrow Academy will release the classic Nagisa Oshima “Merry Christmas Mr Lawrence” starring David Bowie and Hideo Sekigawa’s powerful documentary “Hiroshima”
Synopsis for “Merry Christmas Mr Lawrence”
David Bowie stars in Nagisa Oshima’s 1983 Palme d’Or-nominated portrait of resilience, pride, friendship and obsession among four very different men confined in the stifling jungle heat of a Japanese prisoner-of-war camp in Java during World War II.
In 1942, British officer Major Jack Celliers (Bowie) is captured by Japanese soldiers, and after a brutal trial sent, physically debilitated but indomitable in mind, to a Pow camp overseen by the zealous Captain Yonoi (Ryuichi Sakamoto). Celliers’ stubbornness sees him locked in a battle of wills with the camp’s new commandant, a man obsessed with discipline and the glory of Imperial Japan who becomes unnaturally preoccupied with the young Major,...
Synopsis for “Merry Christmas Mr Lawrence”
David Bowie stars in Nagisa Oshima’s 1983 Palme d’Or-nominated portrait of resilience, pride, friendship and obsession among four very different men confined in the stifling jungle heat of a Japanese prisoner-of-war camp in Java during World War II.
In 1942, British officer Major Jack Celliers (Bowie) is captured by Japanese soldiers, and after a brutal trial sent, physically debilitated but indomitable in mind, to a Pow camp overseen by the zealous Captain Yonoi (Ryuichi Sakamoto). Celliers’ stubbornness sees him locked in a battle of wills with the camp’s new commandant, a man obsessed with discipline and the glory of Imperial Japan who becomes unnaturally preoccupied with the young Major,...
- 4/18/2020
- by Rouven Linnarz
- AsianMoviePulse
Both a landmark and a source of much controversy, “Hiroshima” is one of those films where the background is as significant as the picture itself. Let us take things from the beginning, by quoting Joseph Anderson and Donald Richie’s “The Japanese Film”. “In 1953, the Japan Teachers Union decided to go in with Kaneto Shindo and make a film version of the bestselling “Children of the Atom Bomb” (Genbaku no Ko) by Arata Osada. Shindo made a faithful film version, using the name of the book, and showed the aftermath of the bomb without any vicious polemic. (…) The Union was not at all satisfied, saying that he had “made [the story] into a tear-jerker and destroyed its political orintation.” They decided to back another version which would this time “genuinely to help to fight to preserve peace.” They found their man in Hideo Sekigawa, who turned out “Hiroshima”. (…) The picture was financially...
- 9/25/2018
- by Panos Kotzathanasis
- AsianMoviePulse
The writer and director died last month aged 100. As a BFI retrospective celebrates his career, Emilie Bickerton salutes a life's work made in the shadow of Hiroshima
Kaneto Shindo, who died last month aged 100, just before the start of a two month British Film Institute season dedicated to his career and that of long-term collaborator Yoshimura Kozaburo, spent a lot of time among the reeds, wading through mud, puddles and into woods of bamboo. He was most comfortable there, where life was reduced to its bare essentials. Shindo was born in 1912 in Hiroshima. Japan modernised dramatically over his lifetime, but he observed it at a distance, with the knowledge that all this could disappear drummed into him from childhood after what had happened to his hometown. His subjects in the 49 films he made, ranging from melodramas to horror stories to erotic fictions, were those society had rejected or brutalised, who were now struggling to survive,...
Kaneto Shindo, who died last month aged 100, just before the start of a two month British Film Institute season dedicated to his career and that of long-term collaborator Yoshimura Kozaburo, spent a lot of time among the reeds, wading through mud, puddles and into woods of bamboo. He was most comfortable there, where life was reduced to its bare essentials. Shindo was born in 1912 in Hiroshima. Japan modernised dramatically over his lifetime, but he observed it at a distance, with the knowledge that all this could disappear drummed into him from childhood after what had happened to his hometown. His subjects in the 49 films he made, ranging from melodramas to horror stories to erotic fictions, were those society had rejected or brutalised, who were now struggling to survive,...
- 6/22/2012
- The Guardian - Film News
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